Publications & Acceptances

Crystal Bock Thiessen, instructor in Programs in English as a Second Language, recently had a research article from her presentation, "Effective Error Engagement in Academic ESL Writing" published in the peer-edited journal 2015 MIDTESOL Conference Proceedings.

Gabriel Houck's short story, "The Wick", has been accepted for publication in New Delta Review, and his story "Al, Off the Grid" was accepted for publication in The Sewanee Review.

Ted Kooser has poems in current issues of Kenyon Review and Mississippi Review, and a short essay in The Horn Book.

On October 15th, Beverley Rilett presented "The George Eliot Review Digitization Project: A Transatlantic Collaboration" at the Annual Lecture of the George Eliot Fellowship in Nuneaton, England. Dr. Rilett and her UCARE research assistants, Rosamond Thalken and Bailea Kerr, are working to make 45 years of back issues of this important peer-reviewed journal freely available online.

Patrick T. Randolph has published Introducing Randolph’s Head-to-Toe Method of Associations for Vocabulary Acquisition to Break the Ebbinghaus Curse in the MinneTESOL Journal. This article features his own unique and innovative method on teaching lexical items (single words, compound words, phrases, and idioms) to non-native English speakers. The method includes drawing from work done in neuroscience that has proven to help not only language learners, but learners of all subjects. Some of the neuroscience-based aspects include (1) using emotions and learning, (2) harnessing the mirror neuron system, (3) tapping into synesthesia, (4) eliciting key learning neurotransmitters via physical exercise, (5) highlighting embodied cognition and embodied semantics, and (6) reviving elements of Craik and Lockhart's elaborate or "deeper processing" model. Randolph also offers the procedure of his method along with some studies of his students' long-term retention of the terms taught. In 2015 he received the Best of the TESOL Affiliates Award for his presentation on the method in Toronto, Canada.

Erin M. Bertram's chapbook from The Vanishing of Camille Claudel, about the life and work of the nineteenth-century French sculptor, will be published before the New Year by Seven Kitchens Press. Two additional chapbooks were recently accepted for publication in 2017: Gender/Genre, by Red Bird Chapbooks, in which non-binary identity challenges the gendered body; and Relief Map, which uses etymology to navigate eros-turned-longtime partnership, selected as a winner of C&R Press's Summer Tide Pool Chapbook Competition.

Ryler Dustin has a flash fiction piece, "Sparta," in the December edition of the online literary journal Ghost Magazine.

Maria Nazos' poem "Bugee-Jumping" has been accepted for publication in TriQuarterly.

Conferences, Readings, Workshops & Presentations

Crystal Bock Thiessen, instructor in Programs in English as a Second Language, had two presentation proposals accepted for this year's international Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference, which will be held in Seattle, WA, March 21-24, 2007.

Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster had two screenings of their new video work at The Sla307 Art Space, in New York City, NY on Nov. 12, 2016; and The Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, on Nov. 11, 2016. Videos by Dixon included Life of Luxury, American Dream, Beat Box, Real & Unreal, Kaleidoscope, A Kiss in the Tunnel and other works; Foster's works included Echo and Narcissus, Mirror, Tenderness, Col Bleu, Ampthitrite and other new videos. Thanks to both the galleries for all their help.

Composition and rhetoric Ph.D. student Caitie Leibman presented her work "Inclusion in the Center: Resisting Social Constructions of Learning Disabilities and Finding ‘Ways to Move’ in a Writing Center Handbook” at the 2016 International Writing Centers Association conference this fall. Caitie, who serves as Writing Center Director at Doane University, collaborated on this research with current Doane senior Kaleb Arterburn. Her travel was supported in part by the departmental Joy Currie Graduate Student Travel Fellowship, for which she is grateful.

On Sunday, November 6, Constellation Studios hosted a panel discussion entitled "Placemaking for Wellbeing: A Community Conversation." The event began with comments about placemaking by Lincoln's mayor, Chris Beutler. Discussants included Raul Palma and Maria Nazos from the doctoral program in creative writing; Shane George, doctoral candidate in philosophy; and Karen Kunc, professor of printmaking and founder of Constellation Studios.

On Sunday, December 4th, Raul Palma will present on Alain Badiou's In Praise of Love at Constellation Studios. His presentations will be part of a panel on "Happiness LNK: Love | Nobleness | Kindness // A Community Conversation," which will be held from 2-4pm. Other participants include Karla Cooper, Richard Dienstbier, Shane George, and Shelley and Paul Freeman.

On October 8-9, English Majors Bailea Kerr and Roz Thalken traveled to Omaha to attend and present papers at the 41st annual European Studies Conference. The conference took place at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and was attended by an international mix of faculty and graduate students.

Kerr and Thalken presented on a panel titled “Victorian Literary Celebrity: The Role of Publishers and Agents.” Kerr presented her research on “John Blackwood and George Smith: Two Influential (Rival) Publishers” while Thalken’s research and presentation was focused on, “Marketing George Eliot: Sunday Afternoons at the Priory.” Each paper was co-written with Dr. Beverley Rilett, who also served as Thalken's and Kerr's UCARE faculty mentor for the George Eliot Review digitization project, an initiative funded through a UCARE grant this past summer.

Activities, Accolades, & Grants

Marco Abel presented on his research on German cinema to a community audience at the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association, November 16, 2016. He was also short-listed for the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies.

Provocations, the book series Marco Abel and Roland Végső co-edit for the University of Nebraska Press, now has its own web site: provocationsbooks.com. The web site includes an e-journal to publish commissioned responses to the books the series publishes. "The End" by Alenka Zupancic, the first essay responding to Frank Ruda's Abolishing Freedom, is now live; others will be forthcoming in the next few weeks as part of the journal's first issue.

Gabriel Houck's short story, "The Wick," has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize by New Delta Review.

Kristi Carter placed as a semifinalist for her chapbook, Daughter Shaman, in The Atlas Review's TAR Chapbook series.

Maria Nazos' poem "When a Man in the Midwest Loses a Lover," which was first published in Fourth River, was nominated by guest editor Dakota Garilli and Sheila Squillante for this year's Best of the Net.

Have news or noteworthy happenings to share?

The Department of English encourages our faculty and current students to submit stories about their activities and publications of note by filling out the Department Newsletter Submission Form.